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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25288195">Brave Little Soldier Boy (Come Marching Home)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Des98/pseuds/Des98'>Des98</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Adventures of Mini Zuko [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Found Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Like, Team as Family, Waterbending healing, Whump, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck, canon zuko is already smol, he's doing his best, i'm just..., making him a wee bit smoller, obviously, the gaang as family</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 10:15:56</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,437</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25288195</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Des98/pseuds/Des98</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The Crystal Caverns, and the consequences that follow.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hakoda &amp; Zuko (Avatar), Iroh &amp; Zuko (Avatar), The Gaang &amp; Zuko (Avatar), mentioned</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Adventures of Mini Zuko [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1826704</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>46</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>1542</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Brave Little Soldier Boy (Come Marching Home)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/noodlebunny/gifts">noodlebunny</a>, <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/venomous_syfy/gifts">venomous_syfy</a>, <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/MuffinLance/gifts">MuffinLance</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>So, I borrowed Kustaa from MuffinLance's Salvage to make a minor appearance.  Seriously, go read it, it's amazing.  All her stuff is fantastic.  All Hail the MuffinLord.  Also, thanks to Sortakindagay for the tumblr post that inspired it, and noodlebunny for her amazing Zuko art; if you wanna know what Zuko looks like in this fic, just look it up on tumblr on the blog @pakchoys.  and then make that zuko like, a fair bit shorter. XD</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Zuko took his sister’s lightning to save Aang.  He had to launch himself into the air from one of the crystal clusters just to reach it.</p><p>[]</p><p>Katara’s rage was all consuming.  So was Azula’s.</p><p>“You <em> idiot!” </em> She snarled at Aang, who was looking at Zuko’s crumpled form in horror.  He looked smaller than ever.  “You’ve killed him!”</p><p><em> “You </em>killed him!”  Sokka was crouched in a fighting stance, ready to take on Azula and her army of Dai Li (who, notably, were all agents that had never visited Pao’s tea shop) with nothing but his boomerang.</p><p>“I was <em> trying </em>to kill the avatar,” Azula snapped, as if that made the whole thing any better.  “Now give me my brother!  He should have a proper fire nation burial.”</p><p>“Wait!” Toph’s voice cut through the charged air like a knife.  “He’s still breathing!  He wasn’t, but now he is!”</p><p>Despite herself, the slightest bit of relief showed on Azula’s face.</p><p>“Give him to me!  I can get him to a proper doctor,” she demanded.  </p><p>“Like we’d give him to the same person who hurt him in the first place.  Katara is a healer.  We’re taking him with us.”  Sokka had moved in front of the unconscious firebender, who was twitching with residual electricity.</p><p>“Over my dead body!” Azula growled, her body beginning to crackle as she built up to another lightning strike.</p><p>“That can be arranged.”  Toph smacked a fist against her palm.  “Do you wanna know what’s in your bones, sweetheart?  Because I do, and if I can bend metal I’m pretty sure I can bend <em> you.”  </em></p><p>Aang snapped out of his fugue state and grabbed hold of Toph.  “Nobody else is getting hurt tonight,” he declared in a thousand voices that were not his own and yet at the same time were.  “We’re leaving.”</p><p>The cavern was blown to pieces around them, a wall of earth and a bubble of air protecting anything with a pulse (on both sides) as they made their escape.  Katara held tight to Zuko’s prone form, noting how light he was, how she didn’t even have to strain herself to carry him as they ran.</p><p>“Uncle!” he snapped awake suddenly, thrashing, delirious, his breathing ragged.  His seeing eye moved wildly beneath its half-shut lid, although it certainly wasn’t seeing anything right now, or at least nothing that was real.  “We have to go back!  Uncle, Naga!”  He sounded heartbroken, and Katara shushed him.</p><p>“Shhh,” Katara soothed, patting his shaggy hair.  “Everything will be fine.”  She pulled the spirit water out from under her anorak, where she had it on a string around her neck.  It was the only way that the little prince had a hope of seeing the sunrise.</p><p>“Please, Yue,” she begged, praying to the half-full moon.  “Help me save him.” </p><p>The water growed brighter, and beneath her fingers, Zuko’s heartbeat steadied slightly.</p><p>[]</p><p>The crew of water tribe warriors aboard their stolen fire nation ship was confused.  Their adorable, half-alive little fire nation stowaway <em> looked </em>like a child, perhaps ten at the most (although he certainly could be younger; the scarring on his face, neck, and arm could very well make him look older than he actually was).</p><p>And yet, their healer, the daughter of their chief, swore up and down that he was, in fact, sixteen.  She hadn’t believed it either, she said, but she’d been healing him for the past week and a half since they’d fled Ba Sing Se, and chi lines couldn’t lie about someone’s age.  And <em> his </em>chi lines declared that he was, in fact, sixteen.</p><p>But the little earthbending girl cackled and said that she was lying with such confidence that the warriors began to doubt.  Even the chief looked torn.</p><p>“I am not lying and you know it, Toph.  Stop messing with everyone.”  Katara put her hands on her hips and glared down at the little earthbender, who was only a few inches shorter than their newest acquisition.</p><p>“Come on.  You all have eyes; use them.  Go ahead and tell me that that kid <em> possibly </em> looks any older than 7.”  Her stare was (obviously) unfocused, but it was challenging and confident, and even though she couldn’t actually <em> see </em>his face, they had to admit she had a point.  The prince was very little, and his tiny scowling face did not, by any stretch of the imagination, seem like that of a teenager, even with the horrible scar pulling half of it into a permanent scowl.</p><p>“Whatever,” Katara snapped, when she saw that her own tribe (the traitors) were clearly leaning towards believing Toph.  “You all keep sitting around yapping, I’m going to actually go heal Zuko.”</p><p>She came up hours later, looking grim.</p><p>“How is he?” Sokka asked, not entirely sure he wanted to know.  </p><p>“I’m doing my best, and he’ll live, but he was in a bad way beforehand.  His immune system was terrible before, from what I can tell, and whatever happened in his childhood must be part of whatever has stunted his growth so much.  And the scarring has extensive nerve damage; it’s probably been causing him chronic pain for as long as he’s had it.  I want to work on all that, but so far it’s been all I could do to stave off the infection in the lightning wound.  And now he’s got pneumonia despite my best efforts.  I’ve spent the past hour trying to pull the congestion out of his lungs with my bending, and his fever is skyrocketing.  I need some help.”</p><p>“I’ll get my medical supplies.”  Kustaa, as the Southern Fleet’s resident healer, had been waiting for this moment.  Up until now, Katara had been handling most of it, as her waterbending healing could do more than the rest of them could ever imagine.  But he knew that she couldn’t keep up this pace forever, and would eventually have to trust someone else with her patient.  </p><p>She eyed him somewhat warily; she’d been very young when they’d left, and she hadn’t known him as well as he’d have liked.  He didn’t blame her; her most prominent memory of Kustaa had been him coming out of her parents’ igloo after standing over her mother’s burnt body and declaring that there was nothing he could do to save her, she was already too far gone.  But he knew her better than she knew him; she was like a mother leopard seal when it came to protecting her own.  And it was clear to all of them that she had come to consider Zuko one of her own perhaps since even before Ba Sing Se.  But she had no choice.</p><p>She nodded gravely at him.  “Your job will be to keep the fever down and try to prevent the burn from getting further infected.  I’ve discovered that I can reach into his lungs and pull the mucous out, but it’s very viscous and hard to bend on its own, especially during the day time.  I have to devote all my energy to making sure he can breathe."  Katara was exhausted.  Reaching into someone’s body to try to pull fluid (or semi-fluid) out of them was difficult at the best of times; the body provided a barrier between her and the water she needed to bend.  With the sun high in the sky, it was even harder.</p><p>“Of course,” he agreed.  “Although, perhaps we should bring him up on deck.  Firebenders draw their energy from the sun, and perhaps his body would be able to better aid us if he was able to absorb the light.”</p><p>Katara looked like she wished she’d thought of that herself, but she had barely slept in the past 48 hours, and very little before that.  She’d been running on fumes trying to keep their newest gaang member alive, and as much as everyone else wanted to force her to sleep, there wasn’t anyone else, not even Kustaa, who could care for him as well as she could.<br/>“I’ll go get him.”  Hakoda said gravely.  Katara nodded, but didn’t say anything.  Kustaa looked between them; the energy between their chief and his daughter had been strained since they had reunited, but there had been no time for them to talk about it so far.</p><p>Their chief emerged from below deck carrying a bundle of blankets with a small, scarred face sticking out.  The face was more gaunt than it had been below Ba Sing Se, his injury and subsequent illness causing him to lose weight that he could not afford to.  Nevertheless, as soon as the sun hit his face, he stirred slightly.  Though they could not see it, his chi reached out for the flames of his patron spirit, and the sunlight shined noticeably brighter upon their little ship.</p><p>Sokka watched his little sister bend the green, sticky mess out of Zuko’s body as he coughed weakly.  It just kept building up, the pile growing steadily in tune to his rattled breathing as Katara didn’t even bother to wash it overboard, not now.  If she slowed even slightly, the coughing grew worse, a terrible hacking sound that shook the pile of blankets and made the watching group cringe back in sympathy and horror.</p><p>Somewhere deep in Sokka’s mind, ideas formed that he could not suppress.  Aang had told him that down at Kyoshi island, Katara had saved him from drowning by pulling water out of his lungs (and this was before she had received any formal training at all).  And now here she was, pulling out mucous that seemed only half water, if that, sweat running down her face as she concentrated.  She was reaching into someone’s body under direct sunlight, and pulling liquid out of their bodies.  In his mind, he flashed back to the day before, when he’d accidentally cut his hand on a piece of metal in the ship’s control room as he studied and memorized the mechanisms that kept them moving so that he could fix them if the need arose.  The blood had dripped down slowly onto his wrist, red and metallic-smelling and so very very <em> liquid.  </em> Not for the first time, he thought back to the amount of raw <em> power </em>his sister held.  She’d gone toe-to-toe with Azula, a firebending prodigy who’d trained her whole life, with only a few months of training.  She’d mastered waterbending after only a month under an actual teacher.  The things that she might be able to do with the human body if only the thought occurred to her…</p><p>Sokka resolved never to tell Katara his suspicions.  War did terrible things to people, making them desperate, and he did not want to see what dark knowledge and desperation could combine to create in his powerful, passionate, protective little sister.</p><p>[]</p><p>Under Katara and Kustaa’s dedicated care, Zuko slowly grew stronger, rousing to somewhat-lucid semi-consciousness for a few minutes at a time.  He seemed to do far better on deck, even at night where there was no sunlight to speak of.  Katara thought this strange, that the moon could revitalize him at all.  It wasn’t as prominent as when the sun was up, but it was there.  She might not have understood, but she gave her thanks to Yue/Tui nonetheless.</p><p>For that reason, they had Zuko above deck almost constantly, except when it rained.  Hakoda and Sokka strung up a hammock for him, and someone stayed behind him constantly to ensure that he would not suddenly take a turn for the worst or be thrown overboard by a stray wave.</p><p>No matter who else was on Zuko duty, there was rarely ever only one or two people in his hammock.  Zuko was small, and the hammock was large.  Toph and Aang spent almost every night curled up beside him, Toph for his warmth and Aang to feel his heartbeat, to reassure himself that this person, at least, had not died for him, unlike so many others.</p><p>[]</p><p>The first time Zuko woke fully, it was to feel a small, female body curled against his own, and a large figure standing over them.  He didn’t know where he was, but he knew intimately the rocking of a fire nation ship.  In his still-fever addled mind, the little girl curled against him was his younger sister, and the hulking figure standing over them could only be their father.  Hands were reaching for them, and he noticed with a dull horror that the little girl was in front of him in the strange bed they were lying in.</p><p>He leaped unsteadily to his feet, unsettling the hammock.  Flames shot from his fingers, stronger than they had any right to be for how weak he was, and he did not even notice that a plethora of bright colors streamed through the red and orange like a rainbow.  He only saw the man he thought was their father, and he roared, flames shooting from his mouth as the man stepped aside.</p><p>“You <em> won’t </em>hurt her!” he screamed, his throat sore and raw and weak, but he made sure that his voice carried nonetheless.  A cough tried to tear its way up his airways, but he swallowed it back and refused to allow it.  “You can hurt me, but you can’t hurt her!  She’s everything you wanted her to be, and I won’t let you touch her!”</p><p>He wobbled, but stayed on his feet.  The sun gave him enough strength to keep him standing as he wreathed his hands in fire.  It burned orange and yellow and blue and even white, but he did not notice.  His one seeing eye was glued to the threat in front of him.</p><p>The threat in front of him, he noticed dully over his racing, uneven heartbeat, did not look like his father.  He had brown skin and he was stockier, and with a concerned expression that he had never seen on their father’s face.  And the little girl who had been lying next to him was not Azula, he realized suddenly, through his pounding head.  She was dressed in what he <em> thought </em>was green (his ability to discern colors had never been quite as good after his Agni Kai, as even the vision in his good eye had deteriorated a bit due to the ensuing infection).  She was also small, even smaller than him, and she looked nothing like Azula, covered in dirt as she was and with her hair a poofy mess.  Azula would have killed everyone in the palace before she was caught looking that disheveled.</p><p>“It’s okay, son,” the brown man said soothingly.  It was the wrong thing to say.  Zuko flinched violently at the word ‘son.’</p><p>“I’m sorry I disrespected you, sir,” he rasped, unsure who he was apologizing to but figuring he ought to nonetheless.</p><p>“There was no disrespect,” the man said gently in a tone that Zuko did not understand.  “You’re sick, and injured, and you were only trying to protect your friend.”</p><p>“I… I don’t understand,” Zuko said weakly, swaying on his feet.</p><p>“No,” the other voice said sadly, his tone soft and strong and full of deep melancholy.  “I suppose you don’t.”</p><p>Strong hands wrapped in blue arm bracers caught him before he crumpled to the ground.</p><p>[]</p><p>The next time Zuko woke, the water tribe siblings were standing around his outdoor bedside.  Unsure of the position he was in, he kept his eyes closed and pretended he was still sleeping while he tried to think.</p><p>“He’s awake,” a voice he thought was the little earth bender who was still fairly new to their team declared, and Zuko’s heart sped up.</p><p>“Shh, it’s okay, we’re not going to hurt you,” the female waterbender’s voice soothed, and then there was a hand that was both deliciously cool and far too cold against his fevered skin.</p><p>“Wha… what happened?” he croaked, and then a cup of cool water was being pressed against his lips.  </p><p>“There was tea, and then the earth king wasn’t there, and…”  He shot up rapidly, and the world spun.  “The avatar!  Is he alright?!”</p><p>“Aang’s fine, you saved him.”  The water tribe girl’s voice broke into his panic.  Zuko wasn’t entirely sure why he cared so much, but he’d made a decision in those caverns, and by Agni he was going to stick to it.  His father needed to die.  He’d seen too much of the earth kingdom, of their suffering and their kindness, to think otherwise.  It hadn’t fully cemented in his brain before, but something had snapped in him the moment he jumped to take Azula’s lightning to protect the avatar, and now those feelings had solidified enough to know that, for better or for worse, his destiny was to <em> protect </em>the avatar, and not to hunt him.</p><p>He became aware of his body slowly.  His chest hurt, and his lungs hurt, and he knew without a doubt that the twinging burn on his chest would no doubt scar (which was fine, he supposed.  What’s one more scar from family?).  But his most prominent scar- the one from the last time he had seen his father- felt different, strange.  Namely that he <em> didn’t </em>feel it, and the constant tight aching that would spark with agonizing fire if it was touched the wrong way.</p><p>“My scar doesn’t hurt,” he said, suspicious.  He narrowed his good eye, the other one already permanently in that same position.</p><p>“I managed to heal some of the nerve damage,” the water tribe girl explained.  “I couldn’t restore the feeling, or do anything about your blind eye, but it should be numb now instead of hurting all the time.  It might still hurt a little bit if the weather changes suddenly or something, but I can fix that too once your other injuries are more stable.  I just haven’t had a lot of time to focus on any of your older injuries.”  Zuko noticed that she said injuries, plural, and realized that she must have seen the smattering of other ‘gifts’ his father and sister had left him over the years.  His good cheek reddened in embarrassment, and Katara reached for his hand.  Zuko realized only after that it hadn’t occurred to him to pull away.</p><p>“We can be your family now, if you’d like us to,” she told him.</p><p>Zuko looked at her with eyes far too sad for a sixteen-year-old.  In a face that looked ten, it was even more unsettling.</p><p>“Families don’t usually turn out better for having me in them,” he told her, expecting her to retract the offer.  He’d done nothing but destroy anyone that had ever let him get too close.  Uncle was captured, Lu Ten was dead, Azula was twisted because he couldn’t protect her from their father’s emotional manipulations, and his mother was gone who-knows-where.  Even Grandfather had died the same night that he’d tried to get rid of the blight that was Zuko.  That couldn't be a coincidence.</p><p>“None of what has happened to you is your fault.”  Katara’s voice was sterner now, harder, and she hoped that Zuko knew it wasn’t directed at him.  “We’ll be lucky to have you, if you’ll have us.”</p><p>Zuko gave one short, hesitant nod.  They’d change their minds eventually, he had no doubt, but until then, he would allow himself the pleasure of feeling like he was part of something.  It was selfish and he hated himself a little more for it, but he was too tired to try to pull away from it.  He’d been fighting alone for so long, and then he’d had Uncle, and he hadn’t even appreciated him.  He just wanted to be part of something, and to <em> choose </em>to be part of something.  Even (or especially) if that ‘something’ was taking down his father.</p><p>“Awesome!”  The little earthbender burst out.  “I’m Toph, and those three idiots are Katara, Sokka, and Aang,” she declared, pointing at the water tribe siblings and the avatar.  “And you already know Appa and Momo, I’m sure.”</p><p>“And I’m Hakoda, Sokka and Katara’s father,” the water tribe man lingering in the corner declared gently, stepping forward carefully from Zuko’s right side.  Zuko appreciated the gesture.</p><p>“It’s a pleasure to officially meet you all,” he declared in his best ‘prince’ voice, before devolving into a coughing fit.  Katara was at his side immediately, doing something that eased the pressure in his lungs and petting his hair gently and then handing him more water.  He drank it gratefully, and then another water tribe warrior made him drink some broth before he could go back to sleep.</p><p>For the first time he could remember, Zuko had no nightmares.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>okay, so this one was sad and contemplative, but like, it's zuko, so there's gotta be some aangst somwhere.  I'd say i'm sorry but i'm not.  Just thank the Spirits that I don't want to hurt you as much as Electrons does.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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